A High Court judge has upheld the adoption of Catholic Roma children by a gay couple despite strong protests by their parents.

Four of the unnamed Slovak Roma couple's children were taken into care last year after authorities found they were dirty and not being sent to school or receiving medical care.

However, when the parents discovered two of the children were to be placed with a gay couple they objected on the grounds that they would not be raised in the Catholic faith, and that their upbringing would conflict with Roma culture.

According to the Daily Mail, the couple accused authorities in a statement of "social engineering".

"The children will not be able to be brought up in the Catholic faith because of the conflicts between Catholicism and homosexuality," they said.

They continued by saying that the adoption would cause the children "great psychological harm as homosexuality is not recognised in the worldwide Roma community".

"Having Roma children live with homosexuals or being adopted by them would be found to be humiliating," the couple said.

It would also cause "great upset" if the children later found out about the "huge differences" between Roma culture and that of their adoptive parents.

Despite their objections, Sir James Munby, president of the Family Division, said in a High Court judgement this week that the adoption should go ahead.

However, he strongly criticised the way the case had been handled by the Kent authorities and their suggestion that the couple's views were bigoted.

"It was, in my view, unfortunate that the local authority should have referred at one stage in the proceedings to the parents' views on homosexuality in such a way as to suggest that they are bigoted. The label is unnecessary and hurtful," said Sir James.

The details of the two boys' adoption will now be decided upon by judges at the Family Court in Canterbury.